Glen, regarding...

Glen, perhaps you misunderstood me. I agree with you that race has
nothing to do with linguistics, and I don't believe the Indo-Europeans
were a particular race. The Mycenaens, Hittites, Armenians, Medes and
Persians and Lusitanians certainly don't seem to have been blond, and I
myself don't in any way propose that the Indo-Europeans were originally
blond. I also agree with you that race is of low importance in regards
to Indo-European studies.

However, what I do disagree with you on, and what I was trying to say, is
that someone bringing up what physical characterics Indo-Europeans may
have had isn't in itself racist, because this consideration by itself
doesn't suggest any racial superiority. If I were to describe the
physical characteristics of Ainu or Japanese people, that doesn't mean
that I consider either of those people superior to other races.

Again, I don't think it's an important aspect of Indo-European studies,
but I think the real reason people want to know the appearance of ancient
peoples is so they can imagine and picture them in their heads while
discussing or reading about them.

Again, this is completely different then subscribing to Hitler, which is
what you suggested and is a logistic fallacy.

-Michael



On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 14:41:09 +0000 "Glen Gordon"
<glengordon01@...> writes:

> Michael:
> >Proposing what particular race Indo-Europeans were may be
> >unrealistic but is not racist in any way, and nowhere did he
> >say he believed one race was superior to another.
>
> Um, really, this IS a linguistic forum. Race is so secondary to
> Indo-European linguistics. And unfortunately, since there are
> still nuts out there that still follow H*tler's propoganda in
> relation to Indo-European, when I hear someone obsessing
> over the fantasy that Indo-Europeans were blond and blue
> eyed raises giant alarm bells in my head.
>
> I mean really, what is so special about blondness to this Siglo
> character as opposed to redhair or even dirty blond? How is
> a garden-variety recessive gene important here at all???
> This isn't gLeN being grumpy, it's about maintaining some
> common sense. Siglo has no real point and wants to insist
> on some strange ideology. If he wants to persist with it,
> he may by all means. But the last thing I want to see in my
> mailbox is a bunch of posts about some unattested and
> unlinguistic idea. I didn't sign up for that.
>
>
> = gLeN
>
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